The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembled component. Especially, the present invention relates to an electrical connector assembled component having a lock mechanism to lock upon connector fitting and to release the lock mechanism.
Patent Reference has disclosed a conventional electrical connector assembled component. According to the electrical connector assembled component disclosed in Patent Reference, a first connector and a second connector, each of which has a fitting tube section, fit and lock to each other in an axial direction. Once the first connector and the second connector rotate along the circumferential directions relative to each other, the locking is released.    Patent Reference: Japanese Patent Publication No. 4,711,808
According to the electrical connector assembled component disclosed in Patent Reference, on an inner circumferential surface of the fitting tube section of the first connector and on an outer circumferential surface of the fitting tube section of the second connector, there is respectively formed a cylindrical fitting surface. The first connector has a protruding locking section at two positions, which protrude from the cylindrical fitting surface directing radially inward. The second connector has a flexible arm (first elastic piece) that extends in the axial direction and can elastically flex in the radial direction, and has protrusion-like sections to be locked on an outer surface in the radial direction of the flexible arm.
According to the conventional electrical connector assembled component, upon fitting the first connector to the second connector, the locking sections contact with the sections to be locked. Furthermore, the locking sections flex the flexible arm, on which the sections to be locked are formed, in the radial direction to move to the locking positions. Once the locking sections move over the sections to be locked and reach the locking positions, the locking of the flexible arm is released and recovers the original shape, and thereby the locking sections and the sections to be locked lock each other in a connector removal direction.
According to the conventional electrical connector assembled component, the second connector also has an arc-shaped flexible arm (second elastic piece) that is provided adjacent to the flexible arm and extends in the circumferential direction. The arc-shaped flexible arm has a protrusion away from the flexible arm in the circumferential direction. Moreover, at a position before the protrusion in the circumferential direction, there is formed a groove along the axial direction for releasing the lock, extending along the axial direction.
Accordingly, upon release of the lock, by rotating the first connector relative to the second connector in a direction that the arc-shaped flexible arm extends, the locking sections move over the protrusion while flexing the arc-shaped flexible arm with the protrusion of the arc-shaped flexible arm, so as to be positioned within the groove provided along the axial direction. Being in the state, if the first connector is pulled in the removal direction, the locking section of the first connector moves in the axially-extending groove in the axial direction and the first connector is pulled out therefrom.
However, according to the conventional electrical connector assembled component disclosed in Patent Reference, the connector has to have a complicated configuration, which results in poor strength. Moreover, there is another issue of high manufacturing cost due to the dies and complicated molding step thereof.
According to the electrical connector assembled component disclosed in Patent Reference, the second connector has a locking flexible arm that extends in an axial direction as well as an arc-shaped flexible arm to release the locking. In addition, there is formed an axially-extending groove for guiding the locking section in the connector removal direction to release the locking, which extends in the circumferential direction. Separately having the arc-shaped flexible arm to release the locking, which extends in the circumferential direction in addition to the flexible arm for locking, the amount of flexible portions increase and the configuration is complicated, which results in the above-described problems. Moreover, in the circumferential direction, the arc-shaped flexible arm takes a large space, so that it is difficult to provide in other area, which means less flexibility in designing.
In view of the above-described problems of conventional connectors, an object of the invention is to provide an electrical connector assembled component that has a simple configuration and high strength, and includes a mechanism that can be produced inexpensively and is capable of locking and unlocking the connector fitting.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.